Cycle
by luxluminaire
Summary: Caius has known hundreds of Yeuls, but each one is still special to him. From birth to death, he will always guard her.


Yeul is reborn.

Caius has never considered himself to be good with children. They are far too fragile and so _delicate_; one wrong move and he fears that the tiny life will be extinguished before he knows it. Still, it is his duty to keep watch over Yeul in all stages of her life, from birth to death to rebirth, and so he holds the warm bundle of sleeping Yeul in his arms, knowing that the cycle has begun again.

He also knows that the years will pass by before he knows it, and soon he will be back in this same position, with another Yeul having been loved and lost.

* * *

Yeul is three.

She has still not reached the age where Caius feels completely at ease looking after her, but she is no longer a helpless infant either. He is willing to let her run free under his watch in the fields of her old home of Paddra, as long as he is close enough to cut down any rogue monsters that come near the young seer. He is unsure if her visions have even begun yet, and if they have, she might not yet have the understanding to see them for what they are. He can therefore think for a moment, no matter how fleeting, that perhaps this Yeul will be different, and he won't have to see her die before his eyes. It is a fruitless hope, however; the eyes of Etro are both a gift and a curse, and so Yeul's premature death is inevitable.

For now, though, he is content to watch her as she toddles up to him holding a flower that she has picked, and he accepts it from her with a quiet word of thanks.

* * *

Yeul is nine.

She has been having more and more visions as the years pass, and Caius dutifully performs his task as a Guardian and listens to her accounts of the future. He is sure that she knows by now that each vision brings her closer to death, but she does not show any fear or concern. Instead, she continues to live on, and although in most ways she is identical to the other Yeuls he has known, subtle differences set her apart from her previous incarnations. This Yeul moves with a grace that none of her predecessors possessed, and she dances delicately across the ground with a gentle ephemerality, twirling and leaping with her long silver-blue hair flowing behind her.

Ephemeral, Caius thinks, like her own life.

* * *

Yeul is fifteen.

She has now reached the age when many of the previous Yeuls have died, and so Caius watches her even more closely. Whenever she has a vision a bubble of fear rises in his chest as he wonders if this vision will be her last. Every time she assures him that she's all right, though, his fears are not assuaged, because he has been lulled into this false sense of security before; one moment she will be safe, and the next moment she's dead in his arms. Despite the looming shadow of her mortality, though, life continues for them as it always has. He watches her as she dances in the faint light of the moonlight, and at night she tells him what she has seen, tales of a girl and boy traveling through time to create a better future.

As much as potential disturbances in the timeline worry Caius, he cannot help but wonder if he too can create a better future for him and Yeul.

* * *

Yeul is nineteen.

It's the longest that she has survived in Caius's recent memory, and a selfish part of him wishes that the end will never come, that she can continue to live on before the goddess's gift takes its final toll. His wish is in vain, however, because soon enough the end does come. It comes quickly, just as it always does, with Yeul's eyes flashing with the sign of a recent vision before she collapses into his arms. She barely has time to whisper his name, and then her voice fades away along with the light in her eyes as he watches her die for neither the first nor the last time. His words of goodbye to her remain unspoken, and instead he leans forward to press a kiss to her forehead.

The tears that linger on Yeul's face when he pulls away are not her own.

* * *

Yeul is reborn.

The previous Yeul is now just a memory, and yet history still repeats itself when Caius holds the infant Yeul in his arms again. Even though she will inevitably be different from those who came before her, her life will still end the same way. He may possess the immortal Heart of Chaos that bestows him with unspeakable power, and yet while he still lives he is powerless to free her from her eternal curse. Such is the nature of Etro's gifts.

Yeul opens her eyes, perhaps already experiencing the visions that will eventually destroy her life, and the cycle continues.


End file.
